NORTH Lanarkshire Council (NLC) has been accused of acting as a “receptionist” for a company developing an AI data centre that would displace plans for more than 1000 homes if built.
The council shared personal information with the developer Apatura after receiving queries from a member of the public about a proposed 550 MW data centre in Ravenscraig, near Motherwell.
Mary Ferrie, 71, a resident of nearby Wishaw, left a message on the planning department’s phone answering service with questions about the project, giving her details and expecting a call back from staff. The following day, she received a call from Apatura instead.
Ferrie said: “I was very surprised when I got the call. I thought it was the council on the phone.”
After our enquiries, the NLC admitted a data breach and apologised to Ferrie for forwarding her details by mistake. The charity Planning Democracy said the incident was serious – “corrosive to the integrity of the planning system” and “fuelling concerns about the close relationships between planning officials and developers”.
It urged the NLC to “carry out a full investigation, publish its findings, and explain what safeguards it will put in place to prevent this happening again”, while pausing all data centre determinations until public confidence is restored.
The council said it takes data breaches “very seriously”. It said it will investigate and consider using the findings and staff training to “reduce further risk”.
The project at Ravenscraig is at the pre-application consultation stage, with a planning application expected within weeks, and is Apatura’s biggest.
The plans consist of two separate facilities, both within the Ravenscraig regeneration site. The east data centre would cover the site east of the Wishaw deviation railway line where 1040 homes are planned, 200 within the next 10 years.
The former Ravenscraig steelworks became one of Europe’s largest derelict sites 30 years ago. It’s being regenerated by Ravenscraig Ltd, a joint venture between Scottish Enterprise, Barratt Redrow and Tata Steel.
It decontaminates and sells land to developers. The council requires all developments to follow a masterplan, which includes homes, retail, schools, commercial sites and green space.
Apatura’s data centre would contravene planning conditions but an email from the planning department to the Scottish Government released via freedom of information suggests the council would not block the plans if the developer submitted “appropriate information to support the development”.
NLC further backed Apatura’s project in a letter signed by its chief executive, Des Murray, to accompany the developer’s ultimately unsuccessful application for the UK Government’s AI Growth Zone.
It also stated in a Scottish Government data centre working group that Apatura was “fully engaged” with planning and that “work to support its ambitions should continue”.
The working group tracks progress of the AI Growth Zone in Lanarkshire and makes no planning decisions. The council previously rejected a plan to build a rail freight terminal on the same site, arguing in 2023 that displacing residential land threatened the masterplan’s success.
It considered housing the “key land use” and “main driver” to transform Ravenscraig into a sustainable community and warned losing 1000 homes would “significantly affect” its housing land supply.
Gillian Mackay, the Scottish Greens co-leader and regional MSP for Central Scotland, who supported the vocal local opposition to the freight terminal, said the new data centre plans were “concerning” due to the “clear disregard” for the masterplan and need for housing, and because of “the behaviour of North Lanarkshire Council”.
The Greens will continue to support the residents “to ensure housing is built on the site to revive the community”.
Scotland’s countryside charity Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS) is campaigning for a moratorium on hyperscale data centres in Scotland until the Scottish Government examines the impact of them on Scotland’s climate targets, electricity grid and communities It also wants the ban in place until there is a “robust and meaningful definition of ‘green data centre’” and until all hyperscale data centres are required to do an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)”.
APRS director Dr Kat Jones said: “Scotland is supposed to have a plan-led planning system, but the speculative rush for hyperscale data centres is anything but. Developers seem to think their huge and energy-hungry projects, which create minimal jobs, should trump plans for housing. This is unacceptable.”
The National previously reported plans for 450 homes in Greenock were scrapped in favour of a data centre proposal.
Homes for Scotland warned that hyperscale data centres risked competing with housing for limited grid access and infrastructure, potentially delaying or displacing new homes during Scotland’s housing emergency.
Apatura has eight data centres in planning across Scotland’s central belt. Two other AI data centres are planned in North Lanarkshire, ILI’s in Newhouse and Datavita’s in Airdrie.
The Greens and APRS have re- issued calls for a pause on all data centre developments until impacts are investigated and national guidance for local authorities provided.
“Without guidance we will see towns and cities exploited for climate-wrecking corporate profit,” Mackay said.
Homes for Scotland said any national approach to data centres must ensure home building is not disadvantaged, urging the Scottish Government, planning authorities and utility providers to “consider these issues carefully and transparently before taking major decisions”.
The Scottish Government said ministers were giving “active consideration” to whether guidance was needed to balance the growth of AI data centres with energy and climate goals. The Federation of Master Builders estimates Scotland missed its housing target by 100,000 homes over the last 15 years.
Scotland director Gordon Nelson called for an urgent reverse of house-building decline and said the planning system must support the supply of land for housing.
The Scottish Government said it was investing £926m in affordable housing this year. It has supported more than 120 affordable homes in Ravenscraig, with 23 more scheduled for approval, but said planning and land development process was a local matter.
Planning Democracy’s Clare Symonds said the planning process must be “demonstrably fair, transparent and trusted by the public”. “The council should be independent of developers, not acting as their receptionist,” she said.
The council said it makes planning decisions impartially and independently, adding: “Each planning application for any data centre will be assessed and considered in line with all relevant legislation.”
It said the UK and Scottish governments’ designations of AI data centres as critical national infrastructure meant understanding how they will be developed locally was “in the national interest”.
Ferrie said of the council’s explanation for the breach: “It’s a possi- bility that it was a mistake but I find it weird. It’s just strange that they would pass me on to somebody from Apatura rather than somebody higher up in the planning department if they didn’t know what to do.”
She has since started a Facebook group opposing hyperscale data centres.
Apatura did not respond to a request for comment.
